The biggest city in the country needs 100% telco service in order for the city government to reach 100% of its constituents––especially when natural calamities hit Davao City.
This according to former Civil Service Commission Chair Karlo Nograles, who on Thursday said that improving telecommunications coverage in Davao City would be one of the steps taken to ensure that City Hall can alert Davao City residents when natural calamities like mega typhoons strike the city.
The former Davao City legislator said “nakita natin na sunod-sunod ang dating ng mga malalakas na bagyo dito sa atin. These strong, devastating typhoons have become the norm, and Davao City has to be prepared for them. If we want to save lives and warn residents of impending danger, we need to be able to communicate with them properly, and we can only do that if the whole city has network coverage.”
“Davao City is the biggest city in the Philippines in terms of land area. Given its size, the challenge is how to ensure that the almost two million people who live here can see, hear, and feel City Hall.”
Nograles lamented that in meetings with supporters in different parts of Davao City, he learned that there were communities that encountered difficulties obtaining network coverage.
“Ako mismo napansin ko na may mga lugar na mahina ang data, di ka maka-access sa internet. In other areas, walang signal, di ka maka tawag o maka text. This is something that has to be addressed if we want to notify or update Davao City residents regarding the threats posed by heavy rains, like flooding,” said Nograles.
Aside from enabling the city government to reach out to Davao City residents during typhoons or other natural calamities, Nograles added that improving telco coverage is “a necessary first step in efforts to modernize and digitalize Davao City Hall’s programs and services so that these can be accessed by all, regardless of where you live in Davao City.”
Nograles pointed out that “Davao City is the biggest city in the Philippines in terms of land area. Given its size, the challenge is how to ensure that the almost two million people who live here can see, hear, and feel City Hall.”
“One way to accomplish this is to improve network coverage so that there are zero dead spots in the city. This way, City Hall can reach out to everyone with a mobile phone or a smartphone––kahit saan, kahit kailan.”
Davao City has a total land area of 2,443.61 square kilometers and is home to 1.7 million people, making it the most populous city in Mindanao.
